It is well known that shelling hard boiled eggs is a tedious task, one which requires time and patience of the person doing the peeling. Efforts have been directed to simple kitchen faucet attachments to make the task easier and faster. Such attempts have been largely unsuccessful because the devices have been awkward, complicated and expensive. Also they create more problems than they solve since they simply do not function as intended.
Typical prior art devices comprise an attachment which has a flared cup portion for receiving the end of a hard boiled egg. However, when this type of sheller is used it is found that the water pressure exerted on the inside of the egg shell equals the water pressure exerted on the outside of the egg with the result that the dual pressures balance each other and the egg merely acts as a plug for closing off the flared lower end of the shelling device. One consequence is that water sprays outward on the user frequently.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,056,051 issued Nov. 1, 1977 is representative of a prior art device that does not function as intended inasmuch as the water pressure applied is equal on both the outside and inside and thus the egg acts as a plug. Thus water will spray outwardly from around the lower end of the skirt portion of the apparatus and still not force the egg out of the shell. The only other known prior art which is of interest but which is not pertinent includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,618,682; 2,424,425; 2,962,067; and 3,951,055.